1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a printing apparatus and, more particularly, to a printing apparatus for receiving data which is described by a printer language from a host computer and for printing an image such as characters, figures, or the like on the basis of the data.
2. Description of the Related Art
Hitherto, a printing apparatus generally individually has resources such as print fonts or the like which are actually used in the printing. The printing apparatus receives the data described by a printer language from a host computer and develops the data by using the above resources and prints it.
In case of printing data by using a printer as mentioned above, however, there is a problem such that the resource such as a font or the like which is used by the host computer in order to display data on a screen does not exist in the resources which are used in the printer or, even the case of a resource of the same name, the print result which the user expects cannot be obtained because of a reason such that the implement of the source slightly differs in dependence on the supplying side.
Namely, as shown in a conceptual diagram of FIG. 1, in the case where print data 101 described by the printer language is formed on a host computer 103 having a resource 102 and the formed print data 101 is printed by a printer 105 having a resource 104, when the font designated by the print data 101 does not exist in the printer 105, there is a case where a display result 106 on the screen of the host computer 103 does not coincide with a print result 107 of the printer 105. Reference numeral 108 denotes an interface cable to connect the host computer 103 and the printer 105. The interface cable 108, however, cannot bidirectionally transmit and receive information.
It is an object of the present invention to provide a printing apparatus and printing method, in which it is possible to prevent a print result different from that expected by the user from being obtained and an undesirable printing can be suppressed in consideration of the above problems.
According to the present invention, the above object is accomplished by a printing apparatus comprising: bit map image developing means for receiving print data from a host computer through a bidirectional interface and developing it into a bit map image; bit map image transmitting means for transmitting the bit map image developed by the bit map image developing means to the host computer through the bidirectional interface; input means for inputting instruction information to instruct a printing process through the bidirectional interface; and print control means for printing the bit map image on the basis of the instruction information received through the input means.
According to the present invention, in consideration of the problem such that there is a case where the result which is obtained on the screen of the host computer differs from the result from the printing apparatus, the printer transmits the bit map image developed from the print data to the host computer, the bit map image is displayed on the host computer, the user is allowed to judge whether the output result from the printer can be admitted as a result expected by the user or not, and only the output result which can be admitted is printed. Therefore, it is possible to prevent that the print result different from the result expected by the user is obtained, and the undesirable printing can be suppressed.